Revenge
by JaneNoire
Summary: Riley Lancaster, NCIS Agent in Seattle, finds herself in Los Angeles following a lead to finally catch the man who killed her father. But something goes wrong, her cover blows up and she is captured. The only track that OSP agents have is the message that was sent just before the capture: "Find Callen".
1. Prologue

_**Revenge**_

_**Prologue**_

Sam could not help looking at him with wide open eyes and mouth agape. "G, this is not the behavior of a sane person, are you aware of that?"

"I think you're overreacting a bit too much," he replied, "You're taking this furniture thing as a personal fact".

"You can't live without furniture," he pointed out.

"Why not?" Callen shrugged "My house is fine!"

"You should at least have a bed".

"I have a mattress!"

"It's outrageous!" They heard Hetty's hoarse voice shouting directly from her office.

Everyone was well aware of the many talents of the director of NCIS Los Angeles, including the ability to always know everything, to be able to hear everything that her agents say. But that was really too much: how the hell did she hear Callen and Sam speak, from so far away?

But when the little woman continued to rant animatedly, they understood that Hetty was badly arguing with someone that was irritating her at the phone. They looked cautiously towards her, frightened that she could notice them, and watched her gesticulating and shouting.

"That is absolutely unacceptable," she was repeating for the third consecutive time. "Really unacceptable. Of _course_ I had to be warned before!"

"She's been doing that since I arrived," interjected Nate, psychologist and profiler on the team. In his hands a dossier and with a worried expression on his face, he looked in the direction of their boss with a frown.

"Do you know who made her so angry?" asked Sam.

"Director Vance" he answerd, shifting his eyes to his colleagues.

"Vance? Ad she screams so much?" Callen was definitely shocked by surprise. Hetty was a great woman, who despite her stature could always get respect from anyone, but she would have never show such anger towards her superior.

"As far as I understood, some people are going to be here soon and she was not informed"

"_People_ are already here," said an icy female voice behind them.

The three gasped, but the woman did not flinch at all. She glared them with her big chocolate brown eyes . She crossed her arms under her breasts and introduced herself: "I'm Miranda Gayscone, director of NCIS in Seattle," she nodded to the man beside her, "And this is one of my men, Special Agent Owen Porter". The man, with broad shoulders and an agitated expression on his face, shook hands with the three LA agents.

In that moment Hetty appeared, with pursed lips and her hands hidden in the pockets of her jacket. "Miranda".

"Henrietta" she greeted, curving her lips in an just slightly more friendly expression. "I'm sorry I couldn't inform you before, but things have happened very quickly"

"Oh, I know. I was just told what happened"

Callen cleared his throat. "Uh... What happened?"

Miranda turned her head towards him. "One of my agents has been captured, Special Agent Callen. And you are going help me to find her."


	2. Chapter 1 - Violet Hill

**I apologize for all the errors that might be in the text. I'm Italian, and I'm still working on my English.**

**Hope you like it anyway ;)**

* * *

_**Chapter one**_

_**Violet Hill**_

_Clearly I remember_

_From the windows they were watching_

_While we froze down below_

_When the future's architectured_

_By a carnival of idiots on show_

_You'd better lie low_

_If you love me_

_Won't you let me know? _

_Was a long and dark December_

_When the banks became cathedrals_

_And the fog, became God_

_Priests clutched onto bibles_

_Hollowed out to fit their rifles_

_And the cross was held aloft_

_Bury me in armor_

_When I'm dead and hit the ground_

_My love's opposed but unfolds_

_If you love me_

_Won't you let me know?_

_I don't want to be a soldier_

_Who the captain of some sinking ship_

_Would stow, far below_

_So if you love me_

_Why'd you let me go?_

_I took my love down to violet hill_

_There we sat in the snow_

_All that time she was silent still_

_So if you love me_

_Won't you let me know?_

_If you love me,_

_Won't you let me know?_

Violet Hill – Coldplay

* * *

Callen would have recognized her without any kind of help, without hearing Owen Porter saying her name. Actually, he was pretty sure that nothing could have let him forget about her… her black hair always tied up in a perfect pony-tail, her big green eyes that were used to look at him with complicity, her dresses always perfect and too much formal.

"Riley," he whispered, looking at the picture projected on the big monitor.

"Do you know her, G?" Sam asked, making a step forward.

"Yes. She has been my partner for almost a year," he answered. "Before you".

"You were close?" Kensi aked, whit her sweet tone.

"She was my partner," he repeated. He turned to Porter. "What the hell happened?"

Miranda Gayscone opened wide her mouth, to recompose herself soon after. "We were hoping that you could give us the answer, Special Agent Callen".

"How could I? I haven't seen her in six years".

Tow Seattle agents exchanged a long look.

"Why did you think that mister Callen could have kwon something?" interjected Hetty, putting a finger on her chin, with a thinking expression.

"Emh…" Eric cleared his throat. "I know why". He stood up and he started touching the monitor with fast movements of his fingers. "Two minutes before her phone became unreachable, agent Lancaster sent a message."

"What message?"

"Find Callen," answered Porter. "We thought that she met you and told you about the case she was working on".

Callen put a hand on his mouth, trying to put in order all the information just gained. Why an agent that he hadn't talked to or seen for years was looking for him? Why _him_, among all the people that she could have asked for?

"Eric, can you see if there's a video on the moment of the kidnapping?"

"I already have it," he said. "I'm sending it on the monitor".

And after some click on his remote control, the video started. They all saw Riley walking in streets, looking back more than once to check on the two men that were following her. Then, after being disappeared from the traffic cameras for some seconds, she appeared ready to fight back. She was able to take down one of them, but the other one was faster and with a syringe injected in her arm some drug that let her crumble on the floor.

Callen was shocked by surprise, watching how she had been put out of combat. He perfectly remembered how much Riley was lethal with a gun in her hands, or how much she could be dangerous in fighting. She used to say, joking and making funny of herself, that growing up with three marines had ruined her for the rest of her life.

"If they hadn't sedated her, she could have take them," said Porter.

"Dou you have any idea of who could have done something like that?" asked Kensi to Porter.

Mirada put her hands on her hips, making a step forward. "Oh, we perfectly know who did this".

"Paul Edgard," said Owen, in the same moment when Eric was sending on the monitor a set of files about him. "Marine of the British Navy. After a diplomatic incident that we are not authorized to know about, with his team conceived a plan to cut down American Navy".

"How is possible that you are not authorized to know about the diplomatic incident?" asked Nate, surprised by the information.

"DoD didn't give us the permission," answered Miranda. "For a problem of national security, they said. But I think it's just a lot of crap."

"But, as Callen knows, Riley can't be actually stopped," replied Owen, trying to hide his fleer. "That's why she was here in LA, in the first place. She gaining information about it by one of the trusted spy of hers".

"Back to what happened fifteen years ago, NCIS took care of the case, gutted the threat and Edgard's gang was sent to prison," Miranda continued. "The important fact of all this story is that Navy Caporal Mark Lancaster co-operated whit NCIS team."

"Riley's father".

"That's why it is so important for her," concluded Callen.

"What do we know about the rest of Edgard's band?" asked Sam.

Eric touched the monitor. "Eli Summers converted when he was in jail and took orders once he got out. We can be sure that he has nothing to do with all of this, now".

"Where does he live now?"

"In Seattle," answered Owen. "Riley and I talked to him several times, we kept an eye on him for a long time. He never saw or called the others of the old gang. He's just a priest: nothing to be worried about".

"Then we have Frederick Tale," continued Eric, pointing at another picture on the monitor. "Died a year after the capture for lung cancer. So, he's innocent too".

"The real problem, in fact," interjected Owen. "are Edgard and John Edwards, his right arm".

"Let me guess the rest of the story," said Deeks. "They go out from prison, swear they'll have their revenge and they kill Caporal Lancaster. Am I right?"

Miranda nodded.

"Riley was crushed," Callen remembered. "After her father's death, she was no longer the woman that I was used to know".

"It's understandable," whispered Kensi who was well aware how much could be painful to lose a father.

"Let's go back to present day, shall we?" intervened Hetty, looking at Miranda.

She lowered her head. "I knew this case is too personal for her".

"I'm not judging you, Mandy," said the other woman whit soft voice.

"Anyway, it's not recommended," noticed Nate, playing his role of psychologist. "Usually, personal feeling cloud the mind, even the finest ones."

"Riley talked and worked with many psychologists e she always gained their approval," replied Porter, stepping forward, like if Nate offended him in some kind of way. "More than once, she has proved herself. I _know_ she can handle this case".

"I'm not saying that she can't," he replied "Actually, I'm _sure_ that she's one of the rare exceptions".

"You can bet on it".

Sam looked at his partner, who remained in silence for a long time with a concentrated frown. "What is it, G?"

He gave him a quick look. "Eric, find any other videos of Riley _before_ she was captured."

"Do you thing she left a message?" asked Deeks.

"When we worked together, we had a deal," he explained. "If one of us was in danger, we could have talk each other through the traffic cameras".

"Clever," said Sam, nodding.

"I found something," exulted Eric, almost jumping from his chair. He made appear two different videos on the monitor. In the first one, Riley was getting out from an antique shop, while in the second one they she was looking right into the camera and then shift her eyes to the shop she was in before.

"She wants me to go there," said Callen "She must have left something in there, some kind of clue that could help us find her".

"Fine. Mister Hanna, you go with mister Callen to the antique shop," ordered Hetty. "Miss Blye, you, mister Deeks and agent Porter should work together and see what else you can find about this Edgard person".

Everybody started moving, but Callen stopped e looked into Nate's eyes. "How many possibilities do we have?"

He sighted. "If this is some kind of act of revenge against Caporal Lancaster, probably they'll kill her anyway, no matter what we do".

"And if it isn't?"

"If the real target is American Navy, like fifteen years ago..." he made a brief pause. "Then Riley might be just a bait to get to a more important character".

"More important... like Miranda," said Sam.

"Or director Vance," corrected Nate.

Watching the confused expressions of his colleagues, he added: "Didn't you read Riley's file? Well, she's director Vance's god-daughter," he explained. "Vance and Caporal Lancaster were old friends".

"Not that _old_, Nate," remarked director Vance in person.

* * *

When Riley woke up, she felt a sharp pain in the head. She tried to reach with her fingers the sore point of the temple, but she found out that she wasn't able to move. Something was locking her hands and feet to a chair. Her head was heavier than usual and she couldn't help it but let it swing on her neck.

She opened her eyes, suddenly remembering shreds of what happened. In her cloudy memories there was only the urgent need of seeing Callen. But the rest was all too blurred.

She tried to free herself from the plastic that bound her wrists to the chair, but she wasn't strong enough. She felt weak and tired, like after getting sloshed.

"Ah," exclaimed a male voice at the end of the room. "You finally woke up".

Riley tried to focus the figure getting close to her, but all that she could see was a big black shadow that impended over her.

If she hadn't been so weak, she could have been able to think about a plan to escape. But the only thing that she did was keeping straight her head which grew heavier and heavier.

"Oh, do not worry about the head," the voice reassured her. "You will be fine".

"What have you done to me?" she whispered, trying to sound threatening, without success.

"I surely couldn't afford you to knock down all my men, my dear," he replied. "We injected you some flunitrazepam, also known as..."

"Rape drug," she said.

"Very well, indeed".

She finally recognized the English accent in his voice and understood. "Edwards," she murmured.

"I knew you'd recognize me, eventually," he said "You're a good agent, after all. Aren't you, darling?"

* * *

Sam glanced at him, trying not to worry about him. "You haven't said a word since we got in the car," he pointed out.

"I guess I have nothing to say..."

"Oh, wow," he commented. "Was she _that_ important to you, then?"

Callen didn't answered and looked out the window. He perfectly knew that if only he had admitted to himself _how much_ she meant for him, the thought of losing her once more would have destroyed him for good. "She was my partner. End of story," he said.

"Okay," he nodded.

They got out from the car, headed for the antique shop. "So, let me get this right," started Sam, while they were getting in. "What do you believe she was thinking?"

"Honestly, I don't know," he admitted. "She surely understood that she was followed".

"So she sends a message to his partner where she asks to find you, hides a clue in here so that you could have it and not him?" He raised his eyebrows. "You realize that sounds weird? Why would she look for you, instead of her actual partner?"

"Sam, I don't know!" He stopped to look into his partner's eyes. "All I know is that she asked for _my_ help, and after everything that happened between us, I owe her. So I'm going to look for her and I won't stop until I find her".


End file.
